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  • The emergence of Atlassian's Bamboo (and a free SQL Source Control license offer!)

    - by David Atkinson
    The rise in demand for database continuous integration has forced me to skill-up in various new tools and technologies, particularly build servers. We have been using JetBrain's TeamCity here at Red Gate for a couple of years now, having replaced the ageing CruiseControl.NET, so it was a natural choice for us to use this for our database CI demos. Most of our early adopter customers have also transitioned away from CruiseControl, the majority to TeamCity and Microsoft's TeamBuild. However, more recently, for reasons we've yet to fully comprehend, we've observed a significant surge in the number of evaluators for Atlassian's Bamboo. I installed this a couple of weeks back to satisfy myself that it works seamlessly with Red Gate tools. As you would expect Bamboo's UI has the same clean feel found in any Atlassian tool (we use JIRA extensively here at Red Gate). In the coming weeks I will post a short step-by-step guide to setting up SQL Server continuous integration using the Red Gate command lines. To help us further optimize the integration between these tools I'd be very keen to hear from any Bamboo users who also use Red Gate tools who might be willing to participate in usability tests and other similar research in exchange for Amazon vouchers. If you are interested in helping out please contact me at David dot Atkinson at red-gate.com I recently spoke with Sarah, the product marketing manager for Bamboo, and we ended up having a detailed conversation about database CI, which has been meticulously documented in the form of a blog post on Atlassian's website: http://blogs.atlassian.com/2012/05/database-continuous-integration-redgate/ We've also managed to persuade Red Gate marketing to provide a great free-tool offer, provide a free SQL Source Control or SQL Connect license to Atlassian users provided it is claimed before the end of June! Full details are at the bottom of the post. Technorati Tags: sql server

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  • DNS NAmeserver Aname and cname records

    - by David
    Hi - I am inexperienced in the configuration of DNS and have an issue with dominan hosting set up. I have two domains 'www.mydomain1.com' and 'www.mydomain2.com', with mydomain2 pointed at the same place as mydomain1. The domains were passed to me recently by the person who previoulsy controlled them. I have an account with fasthosts in the uk. When I accepted the domains I could not access the DNS settings and enquired with fasthosts as to why. The replied saying 'The delegate hosting option for both domains were enabled and this is the reason why you were unable to find the option to edit the advanced DNS records. I have now disabled the delegate hosting option so you can now edit the advanced DNS records for both domains in your account.' When i log into the fasthost control panel now i can access the DNS controls but both domains have no A Record of Cname record set up. I am concerned that fasthosts have blatted the previous Nameserver entries and set me up on theirs but not added any record. 'www.mydomain1.com' currently still works but 'www.mydomain2.com' does not find the site anymore. i am worried i will lose mydomain1 to as teh dns changes filter through the system. my webhosting is at 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/mydomain1.com/' and this is where I want both domains to point. Any advice would be much appreciated. one thing which is confusing me is that because I am on a shared server I have to put 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/mydomain1.com/' to get to my site rather than just 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx'. The form on fasthosts for the aname record only allows an IP to be entered - does it add the mydomain1.com/ onto the end itself? Thanks for any help given - I'm quite worried about this David

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  • Découvrir la solution d'exploration de données structuré et non structuré

    - by David lefranc
    Explorer et découvrir l’information… Nous vous proposons un atelier découverte pour vous permettre d’explorer toute type de données grâce à la solution Oracle Endeca . Quand : 7 Décembre 2012 De 9h30 à 12h30  Lieu : Oracle 15 Boulevard Charles de gaulle 92715 Colombes Pour s'inscrire : David[email protected] Réalisé pour des utilisateurs métiers, cet atelier vous permettera en une demi journée , de découvrir Oracle Endeca Information Discovery afin de : Comprendre et explorer toute information venant de différents horizons ( Big Data, réseaux sociaux, forums, sondages, blogs..) Découvrir en quoi et comment OEID est un complément à des solutions de BI classiques Par une navigation simple et rapide, vous découvrirez combien il est facile de trouver des réponses à des questions imprévues en utilisant OEID sans formation préalable. Utilisez la recherche et la navigation guidée pour voir comment les informations structurées et non structurées peuvent être rapidement réunies pour dégager la valeur cachée. Explorer toutes vos données dans n'importe quel format et à partir de n'importe quelle source, y compris les médias sociaux, documents, fichiers,…. Pouvoir découvrir et explorer vos données sans référentiel pour permettre aux utilisateurs d’être autonome et d’analyser leurs propres données de manière rapide Élaborer une stratégie visant à accroître la valeur des données de l'entreprise tout en réduisant le coût total de possession Découvrez l'incroyable performance d’ Endeca sur Oracle Exalytics la machine In Memory AgendaAprès une introduction sur la solution Oracle information Endeca, suivi d’un atelier, vous verrez comment il est facile de: Utiliser la navigation guidée et le moteur de recherche pour explorer les données structurées et non structurées intégrer rapidement les nouvelles sources de données comme les médias sociaux Construire de nouvelles interfaces utilisateur tout en découvrant l’information répondre rapidement aux besoins changeants des entreprises et des environnements de données

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  • pdflatex reads .eps files saved in OS/X, but not in Ubuntu

    - by David B Borenstein
    Sorry if this is a stupid question; I'm a newbie. I am preparing a manuscript in LaTeX. The journal (Physical Biology, an IOP publication) requires that figures be saved in .eps format, so I am trying to do that. However, I cannot get my LaTeX file to build when I have generated the .eps files on my Ubuntu computer. If I save the images on my Mac, the file build just fine. So far, I have tried saving images in ImageJ, FIJI and Inkscape. The same problem occurs in all three. When using kile, I get the following error: /usr/share/texmf-texlive/tex/latex/oberdiek/epstopdf-base.sty:0: Shell escape feature is not enabled. In TexWorks, the error is different, but still there: Package pdftex.def Error: File `./figures4/figure4a-eps-converted-to.pdf' not found. Now, if I fire up Inkscape, FIJI or ImageJ on OS/X, everything works fine. The Mac also can't build with the Ubuntu-saved images. The images generated on the Ubuntu machine open fine using Document Viewer. I am building the same LaTeX file on both computers, with the exact same results. The header of my LaTeX file is: \documentclass[12pt]{iopart} \usepackage{graphicx} \usepackage{epstopdf} \usepackage{parskip} \usepackage{color} \usepackage{iopams} And then the code for the figure is: \begin{figure} \center{\includegraphics[width=4in] {./figures4/figure4a.eps}} \footnotesize{\caption{ \label{fig:4a} (4a) lorem ipsum dolor sic amet.}} \end{figure} I'd be happy to send an example of both .eps files. Again, sorry if this is a dumb question. I tried everything I could think of before posting here. Thanks, David

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  • DNS NAmeserver Aname and cname records [closed]

    - by David
    I am inexperienced in the configuration of DNS and have an issue with dominan hosting set up. I have two domains 'www.mydomain1.com' and 'www.mydomain2.com', with mydomain2 pointed at the same place as mydomain1. The domains were passed to me recently by the person who previoulsy controlled them. I have an account with Fasthosts in the UK. When I accepted the domains I could not access the DNS settings and inquired with fasthosts as to why. The reply was: The delegate hosting option for both domains were enabled and this is the reason why you were unable to find the option to edit the advanced DNS records. I have now disabled the delegate hosting option so you can now edit the advanced DNS records for both domains in your account. When I log into the Fasthost control panel now I can access the DNS controls but both domains have no A record or Cname record set up. I am concerned that Fasthosts have blatted the previous Nameserver entries and set me up on theirs but not added any record. 'www.mydomain1.com' currently still works but 'www.mydomain2.com' does not find the site anymore. I am worried I will lose mydomain1 to as the DNS changes filter through the system. my webhosting is at 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/mydomain1.com/' and this is where I want both domains to point. Any advice would be much appreciated. One thing which is confusing me is that because I am on a shared server I have to put 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/mydomain1.com/' to get to my site rather than just 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx'. The form on Fasthosts for the A name record only allows an IP to be entered - does it add the mydomain1.com/ onto the end itself? Thanks for any help given - I'm quite worried about this David

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  • Compiz Fusion And Unity Tool

    - by David Michael Rice
    I tried to install compiz fusion on ubuntu studio 13 and all I got was this Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation: The following packages have unmet dependencies: compiz-fusion-plugins-extra:i386 : Depends: compiz-core:i386 but it is not going to be installed Depends: compiz-fusion-plugins-main:i386 but it is not going to be installed Recommends: compizconfig-settings-manager:i386 but it is not going to be installed compiz-gnome : Depends: libcompizconfig0 but it is not going to be installed compizconfig-settings-manager : Depends: python-compizconfig (>= 1:0.9.9~daily13.04.18.1~13.04-0ubuntu1) but it is not going to be installed libcompizconfig-backend-gconf:i386 : Depends: libcompizconfig0:i386 but it is not going to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages. david@Nebuchadnezzar:~$ Also I installed Unity tweak tool through the software center, and now I cannot find it at all, not even in search apps. I feel like every time I try to install something I have to jump through flaming hoops...

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  • Atelier gratuit : Découvrir la solution d'exploration de données structuré et non structuré

    - by David lefranc
    Explorer et découvrir l’information… Nous vous proposons un atelier découverte pour vous permettre d’explorer toute type de données grace à la solution Oracle Endeca Information Discovery. Quand : 7 Décembre 2012 De 9h30 à 12h30  Lieu : Oracle 15 Boulevard Charles de gaulle 92715 Colombes Pour s'inscrire : David[email protected] Réalisé pour des utilisateurs métiers, cet atelier vous permettera en une demi journée , de découvrir Oracle Endeca Information Discovery afin de : Comprendre et explorer toute information venant de différents horizons ( Big Data, réseaux sociaux, forums, sondages, blogs..) Découvrir en quoi et comment OEID est un complément à des solutions de BI classiques Par une navigation simple et rapide, vous découvrirez combien il est facile de trouver des réponses à des questions imprévues en utilisant OEID sans formation préalable. Utilisez la recherche et la navigation guidée pour voir comment les informations structurées et non structurées peuvent être rapidement réunies pour dégager la valeur cachée. Explorer toutes vos données dans n'importe quel format et à partir de n'importe quelle source, y compris les médias sociaux, documents, fichiers,…. Pouvoir découvrir et explorer vos données sans référentiel pour permettre aux utilisateurs d’être autonome et d’analyser leurs propres données de manière rapide Élaborer une stratégie visant à accroître la valeur des données de l'entreprise tout en réduisant le coût total de possession Découvrez l'incroyable performance d’ Endeca sur Oracle Exalytics la machine In Memory Agenda Après une introduction sur la solution Oracle information Endeca, suivi d’un atelier, vous verrez comment il est facile de: Utiliser la navigation guidée et le moteur de recherche pour explorer les données structurées et non structurées intégrer rapidement les nouvelles sources de données comme les médias sociaux Construire de nouvelles interfaces utilisateur tout en découvrant l’information répondre rapidement aux besoins changeants des entreprises et des environnements de données Quand Lieu 7 Décembre 2012 De 9h30 à 12h30 Oracle 15 Boulevard Charles de gaulle 92715 Colombes

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  • Wessty: Live with HTML 5 (2011 Speaker Tour)

    - by David Wesst
    That’s right: Wessty is on tour. Okay, the banner and the tour is a little over the top, but I am really excited about my upcoming speaking engagements to spread the word about HTML 5! I have already kicked off the tour with the Winnipeg Code Camp last weekend with the world premiere of HTML 5 for .NET Pro presentation, and the turn out fantastic. It was the last presentation of the day, but we still had some great questions about the new standard and got to see how HTML 5 can fit into .NET web applications today. In any case, above you can see the confirmed presentations that I will be doing so far in 2011, but there are a few more events that I have heard about that I hope to add to that list. Ultimately, expect that list to be updated over the course of the year as the year is young and there are plenty of conferences coming up! Presentation Resources As the tour continues, I will be posting the slides and the source code for the demonstrations up here on my site. They will be free of charge and give you the chance to review the demos and hopefully take advantage of some of the cool things you see in the presentations. Become part of the Tour If you are considering hosting an event where you think that HTML 5 could use a voice, drop me a line and let me know. I am always looking for opportunities to grow the tour to talk not just about HTML 5, but a variety of topics that relate to user interface and user experience development. This post also appears at http://david.wes.st

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  • Rankings dropping after small URL-change WITH 301-redirect

    - by David
    Two weeks ago, we attempted to make the URLs of ca. 12 pages more search-engine friendly. We changed three things. 1. Make URLs more SEF from: /????-????/brandname.html (meaning: /aircon-price/daikin.html to: /????-brandnameinenglish-brandnameinthai.html We set up 301-redirects from the old to the new URLs. You can find an example and the link to our page here: http://bit.ly/XRoTOK There are no direct external links to the old URLs. 2. Added text to img-links from homepage to brand-pages Before those changes, we only linked to those brands with a picture, so we added some text under the picture. You can see that here, in the left submenu: http://bit.ly/XRpfoF 3. Minor changes to Title, h1-Tags, Meta Description, etc. Only minor changes, to better match the on-site optimization with targeted keywords. For example, before we used full brand names, after we used what was really searched for: from: Mitsubishi Electric Mr. Slim to: ???? Mitsubishi (means: Aircon Mitsubishi) Three days after these changes, we noticed a heavy drop (80% loss in non-paid search traffic) in rankings and traffic for those pages, and also for all pages which are sub-categorized. Rankings for all keywords not affected by the changes stayed the same. Any ideas, what happened, and how we can regain our old rankings? What we already did, was submitting a new sitemap. Help much appreciated. Best regards, David

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  • Compare two NTP servers

    - by David Turner
    Hi, I want to compare the time used by our internal servers against time.microsoft.com. Is there an easy way to do this? Basically a third party sends me messages stamped with a time that has been synced iwth time.microsoft.com, unfortunately our servers are using a different time server, so I want to calculate if there is a significant difference between the our NTP synced time, and theirs. Is there a simple way to accurately compare times? regards, David.

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  • nginx proxy to different path

    - by David Robertson
    I've read through the documentation for nginx's HttpProxyModule, but I can't figure this out: I want it so that if someone visits, for example http://ss.example.com/1339850978, nginx will proxy them http://dl.dropbox.com/u/xxxxx/screenshots/1339850978.png. If I was to just use this line in my config file: proxy_pass http://dl.dropbox.com/u/xxxxx/screenshots/;, then they would have to append the .png themselves. tia, David.

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  • Why are perfectly legitamate pages on my website registering in google Webmasters as 404?

    - by christian
    I have seen this question asked several times here, but never clearly answered. I suspect it has something to do with my .htaccess file: # BEGIN WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [L] </IfModule> # END WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^moreinfo/(.*)$ http://www.kgstiles.com/moreinfo$1 [R=301] RewriteRule ^healthsolutions/(.*)$ http://www.kgstiles.com/healthsolutions$1 [R=301] RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html$ $1/ [R=301] RewriteRule ^(.*)\.htm$ $1/ [R=301] </IfModule> when I check the url without a forward slash at the end, it registers as 404 (even though it renders fine in a browser), but when I write it without the forward slash at the end, it renders 200 OK, but if I try to take off the forward slash with the htaccess file, the browser gives me a 310 error (too many redirects) you can see the 404 and 310 with this url: http://www.kgstiles.com/pureplantessentials.html which redirects to http://www.kgstiles.com/pureplantessentials/ (which is a 404), so what is a solution and why might this be registering as a 404? Any Help is appreciated! (I'm using wordpress btw)

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  • Cannot install mysql-server (5.5.22) on clean ubuntu 12.04 LTS server

    - by Christian
    I have a clean minimal install of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS server 64-bit (just a root user and nothing alse installed). I tried to install the mysql-server with the following command: apt-get install mysql-server The installation aborts with the following error: The following NEW packages will be installed: libdbd-mysql-perl{a} libmysqlclient18{a} mysql-client mysql-client-5.5{a} mysql-client-core-5.5{a} mysql-common{a} mysql-server mysql-server-5.5{a} mysql-server-core-5.5{a} 0 packages upgraded, 9 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 11.7 kB/26.2 MB of archives. After unpacking 94.5 MB will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] y Get: 1 http://mirror.eu.oneandone.net/ubuntu/ubuntu/ precise/main mysql-client all 5.5.22-0ubuntu1 [11.7 kB] Fetched 11.7 kB in 0s (567 kB/s) Preconfiguring packages ... Selecting previously unselected package mysql-common. (Reading database ... 54008 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking mysql-common (from .../mysql-common_5.5.22-0ubuntu1_all.deb) ... Selecting previously unselected package libmysqlclient18. Unpacking libmysqlclient18 (from .../libmysqlclient18_5.5.22-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb) ... Selecting previously unselected package libdbd-mysql-perl. Unpacking libdbd-mysql-perl (from .../libdbd-mysql-perl_4.020-1build2_amd64.deb) ... Selecting previously unselected package mysql-client-core-5.5. Unpacking mysql-client-core-5.5 (from .../mysql-client-core-5.5_5.5.22-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb) ... Selecting previously unselected package mysql-client-5.5. Unpacking mysql-client-5.5 (from .../mysql-client-5.5_5.5.22-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb) ... Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server-core-5.5. Unpacking mysql-server-core-5.5 (from .../mysql-server-core-5.5_5.5.22-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb) ... Processing triggers for man-db ... Setting up mysql-common (5.5.22-0ubuntu1) ... Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server-5.5. (Reading database ... 54189 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking mysql-server-5.5 (from .../mysql-server-5.5_5.5.22-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb) ... Selecting previously unselected package mysql-client. Unpacking mysql-client (from .../mysql-client_5.5.22-0ubuntu1_all.deb) ... Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server. Unpacking mysql-server (from .../mysql-server_5.5.22-0ubuntu1_all.deb) ... Processing triggers for ureadahead ... Processing triggers for man-db ... Setting up libmysqlclient18 (5.5.22-0ubuntu1) ... Setting up libdbd-mysql-perl (4.020-1build2) ... Setting up mysql-client-core-5.5 (5.5.22-0ubuntu1) ... Setting up mysql-client-5.5 (5.5.22-0ubuntu1) ... Setting up mysql-server-core-5.5 (5.5.22-0ubuntu1) ... Setting up mysql-server-5.5 (5.5.22-0ubuntu1) ... 120502 10:17:41 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled. 120502 10:17:41 InnoDB: The InnoDB memory heap is disabled 120502 10:17:41 InnoDB: Mutexes and rw_locks use GCC atomic builtins 120502 10:17:41 InnoDB: Compressed tables use zlib 1.2.3.4 120502 10:17:41 InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, size = 128.0M 120502 10:17:41 InnoDB: Completed initialization of buffer pool 120502 10:17:41 InnoDB: highest supported file format is Barracuda. 120502 10:17:41 InnoDB: Waiting for the background threads to start 120502 10:17:42 InnoDB: 1.1.8 started; log sequence number 1595675 120502 10:17:42 InnoDB: Starting shutdown... 120502 10:17:42 InnoDB: Shutdown completed; log sequence number 1595675 start: Job failed to start invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "start" failed. dpkg: error processing mysql-server-5.5 (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1 No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already Setting up mysql-client (5.5.22-0ubuntu1) ... dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mysql-server: mysql-server depends on mysql-server-5.5; however: Package mysql-server-5.5 is not configured yet. dpkg: error processing mysql-server (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already Processing triggers for libc-bin ... ldconfig deferred processing now taking place Errors were encountered while processing: mysql-server-5.5 mysql-server E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) A package failed to install. Trying to recover: Setting up mysql-server-5.5 (5.5.22-0ubuntu1) ... start: Job failed to start invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "start" failed. dpkg: error processing mysql-server-5.5 (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mysql-server: mysql-server depends on mysql-server-5.5; however: Package mysql-server-5.5 is not configured yet. dpkg: error processing mysql-server (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured Errors were encountered while processing: mysql-server-5.5 mysql-server I am completely lost because I have tried everything on the web to solve my problem (clearning the install, reconfiguring with dpkg, manually editing the my.cnf). I also set up a new clean install but nothing helped. What am I doing wrong? New information: The file /var/log/upstart/mysql.log contains the following error after the installation: AppArmor parser error for /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mysqld in /etc/apparmor.d/tunables/global at line 17: Could not open 'tunables/proc'

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  • How to use caching to increase render performance?

    - by Christian Ivicevic
    First of all I am going to cover the basic design of my 2d tile-based engine written with SDL in C++, then I will point out what I am up to and where I need some hints. Concept of my engine My engine uses the concept of GameScreens which are stored on a stack in the main game class. The main methods of a screen are usually LoadContent, Render, Update and InitMultithreading. (I use the last one because I am using v8 as a JavaScript bridge to the engine. The main game loop then renders the top screen on the stack (if there is one; otherwise, it exits the game) - actually it calls the render methods, but stores all items to be rendered in a list. After gathering all this information the methods like SDL_BlitSurface are called by my GameUIRenderer which draws the enqueued content and then draws some overlay. The code looks like this: while(Game is running) { Handle input if(Screens on stack == 0) exit Update timer etc. Clear the screen Peek the screen on the stack and collect information on what to render Actually render the enqueue screen stuff and some overlay etc. Flip the screen } The GameUIRenderer uses as hinted a std::vector<std::shared_ptr<ImageToRender>> to hold all necessary information described by this class: class ImageToRender { private: SDL_Surface* image; int x, y, w, h, xOffset, yOffset; }; This bunch of attributes is usually needed if I have a texture atlas with all tiles in one SDL_Surface and then the engine should crop one specific area and draw this to the screen. The GameUIRenderer::Render() method then just iterates over all elements and renders them something like this: std::for_each( this->m_vImageVector.begin(), this->m_vImageVector.end(), [this](std::shared_ptr<ImageToRender> pCurrentImage) { SDL_Rect rc = { pCurrentImage->x, pCurrentImage->y, 0, 0 }; // For the sake of simplicity ignore offsets... SDL_Rect srcRect = { 0, 0, pCurrentImage->w, pCurrentImage->h }; SDL_BlitSurface(pCurrentImage->pImage, &srcRect, g_pFramework->GetScreen(), &rc); } ); this->m_vImageVector.clear(); Current ideas which need to be reviewed The specified approach works really good and IMHO it is really has a good structure, however the performance could be definitely increased. I would like to know what do you suggest, how to implement efficient caching of surfaces etc so that there is no need to redraw the same scene over and over again? The map itself would be almost static, only when the player moves, we would need to move the map. Furthermore animated entities would either require updates of the whole map or updates of only the specific areas the entities are currently moving in. My first approaches were to include a flag IsTainted which should be used by the GameUIRenderer to decide whether to redraw everything or use cached version (or to not render anything so that we do not have to Clear the screen and let the last frame persist). However this seems to be quite messy if I have to manually handle in my Render method of the screen class if something has changed or not.

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  • Initial Review - Mastering Unreal Technology I: Introduction to Level Design with Unreal Engine 3

    - by Matt Christian
    Recently I purchased 3 large volumes on using the Unreal 3 Engine to create levels and custom games.  This past weekend I cracked the spine of the first and started reading.  Here are my early impressions (I'm ~250 pages into it, with appendices it's about 900). Pros Interestingly, the book starts with an overview of the Unreal engines leading up to Unreal 3 (including Gears of War) and follows with some discussion on planning a mod and what goes into the game development process.  This is nice for an intro to the book and is much preferred rather than a simple chapter detailing what is on the included CD, how to install and setup UnrealEd, etc...  While the chapter on Unreal history and planning can be considered 'fluff', it's much less 'fluffy' than most books provide. I need to mention one thing here that is pretty crucial in the way I'm going to continue reviewing this book.  Most technical books like this are used as a shelf reference; as a thick volume you use for looking up techniques every now and again.  Even so, I prefer reading from cover to cover, including chapters I may already be knowledgable on (I'm sure this is typical for most people).  If there was a chapter on installing UnrealEd (the previously mentioned 'fluff'), I would probably force myself to read it, even though I've installed the game and engine multiple times on different systems. Chapter 3 is where we really get to the introduction piece of UnrealEd, creating your first basic level.  This large chapter details creating two small rooms, adding static meshes, adding lighting, creating and adding particle emitters, creating a door that animates with Unreal Matinee and Kismet, static meshes with physics, and other little additions to make your level look less beginner.  This really is a chapter that overviews the entire rest of the book, as each chapter following details the creation and intermediate usages of Static Meshes, Materials, Lighting, etc... One other very nice part to this book is the way the tutorials are setup.  Each tutorial builds off the previous and all are step-by-step.  If you haven't completed one yet, you can find all the starting files on the CD that comes with the book. Cons While the description of the overview chapter (Chapter 3) is fresh in your mind, let me start the cons by saying this chapter is setup extremely confusing for the noob.  At one point, you end up creating a door mesh and setting it up as a InteropMesh so that it is ready to be animated, only to switch to particles and spend a good portion of time working on a different piece of the level.  Yes, this is actually how I develop my levels (jumping back and forth), though it's very odd for a book to jump out of sequence. The next item might be a positive or a negative depending on your skill level with UnrealEd.  Most of the introduction to the editor layout is found in one of the Appendices instead of before Chapter 3.  For new readers, this might lead to confusion as Appendix A would typically be read between Chapter 2 and 3.  However, this is a positive for those with some experience in UnrealEd as they don't have to force themselves through a 'learn every editor button' chapter.  I'm listing this in the Cons section as the book is 'Introduction to...' and is probably going to be directed toward a lot of very beginner developers. Finally, there's a lack of general description to a lot of the underlying engine and what each piece in UnrealEd is or does.  Sometimes you'll be performing Tutorial after Tutorial with barely a paragraph in between describing ANY of what you've just done.  Tutorial 1.1 Step 6 says to press Button X, so you do.  But why?  This is in part a problem with the structure of the tutorials rather than the content of the book.  Since the tutorials are so focused on a step-by-step (or procedural) description of a process, you learn the process and not why you're doing that.  For example, you might learn how to size a material to a surface, but will only learn what buttons to press and not what each one does. This becomes extremely apparent in the chapter on Static Meshes as most of the chapter is spent in 3D Studio Max.  Since there are books on 3DSM and modelling, the book really only tells you the steps and says to go grab a book on modelling if you're really interested in 3DSM.  Again, I've learned the process to develop my own meshes in 3DSM, but I don't know the why behind the steps. Conclusion So far the book is very good though I would have a hard time recommending it to a complete beginner.  I would suggest anyone looking at this book (obviously including the other 2, more advanced volumes) to pick up a copy of UDK or Unreal 3 (available online or via download services such as Steam) and watch some online tutorials and play with it first.  You'll find plenty of online videos available that were created by the authors and may suit as a better introduction to the editor.

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  • Retro Video Game Collection

    - by Matt Christian
    Recently I've decided, in true nerd fashion, to collect either comic books or video games.  Considering I'm much more versed in the technological arts and not in ACTUAL art, I thought collecting old video games would be an interesting venture.  After all, I am a self-described compulsive shopper (my bank statement at the end of the month has a purchase every few days).  (Don't worry, I'm not in debt and still pay my bills on time!) I went to a local video game store in Stevens Point called Gaming Generations which is a neat little shop with loads of old games for great prices.  For example, any NES cartridge on the shelf (not behind glass) is, at most, $4.99 with the cheaper ones around $1.99.  During my first round at GG, I picked up the following: NES: - Fester's Quest - Adventures of Link (Zelda 2, grey cart) - Little Nemo - Total Recall - The Goonies 2 PSX: - Galerians N64: - Mission: Impossible - Hybrid Heaven I was a little cautious, would I even like collecting old games?  As soon as I popped a few of those games in I knew right away the answer was an astounding YES!  Not only is it fun to bring back memories of all these old games, but searching for them in stores is also a blast and saying 'I have that one, I need the second one.' After finding such joy in buying these games, I decided to go search through 4-5 stores in Wausau for old games as well.  While the prices were a bit higher and selection smaller, the search was still fun.  I found the following: NES: - Maniac Mansion - T&C Surf - Chip N Dale: Rescue Rangers - TMNT (the first one) - Mission: Impossible N64: - Turok - Turok 2 Genesis: - Sonic the Hedgehog Dreamcast: - Shenmue And I found a Gamegear for $5!  Now I just need to find games for it... Tonight I will go on one more small expedition into the used, once again stopping at GG and another second hand store to see if I can find any items for my collection.

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  • How to set all locale settings in Ubuntu

    - by Christian Schneider
    A remote installed application has some encoding problems and on my local machine it is running fine. What is the best way to "copy" my locales to the remote machine? The locales on my personal machine are configured like this: $ locale LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 LANGUAGE=de_DE:en LC_CTYPE="de_DE.UTF-8" LC_NUMERIC=en_US.UTF-8 LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8 LC_COLLATE="de_DE.UTF-8" LC_MONETARY=en_US.UTF-8 LC_MESSAGES="de_DE.UTF-8" LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8 LC_NAME=en_US.UTF-8 LC_ADDRESS=en_US.UTF-8 LC_TELEPHONE=en_US.UTF-8 LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=en_US.UTF-8 LC_ALL=

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  • More Retro Games

    - by Matt Christian
    Last week I made 2 stops to my local game stores and spent a load of cash on a bunch of new retro games for my collection.  Here are the recent additions: NES - Mega Man 2 - The Adventures of Bayou Billy - Ducktales - Metal Gear - Super Mario Bros / Duck Hunt - Firestorm - Dragon's Lair - Bartman Meets Radioactive Man N64 - Superman 64 - Zelda: Ocarina of Time (in original box, box is in poor condition) Atari - Superman - Adventure - Donkey Kong - Raiders of the Lost Ark Dreamcast - Memory card with view screen - Space Channel 5 Genesis (all in case) - Jurassic Park - Sonic Spinball - Sonic the Hegehog 3 (missing manual) - Spiderman (also called Spiderman vs. The Kingpin) GameGear - Bart vs The Space Mutants Quite a large haul given it was all purchased in 2 days.  Although, Metal Gear I got for a great deal and almost considered buying their other copy simply to resale for more though I decided against it to let another lucky soul find it.  I may need to run over there again because I think they had TMNT 2 (NES) for around $6 and it usually sells for more than that.  I could have sworn I grabbed it and bought it but my receipt tells me differently. I also found my copy of Super Mario 3 and added that to my collection.  Unfortunately one of the corners of the label has begun to peel up pretty badly which sucks although it's still a good item for the collection. In other retro news, this weekend was Easter and while at my grandparents the cousins wanted to play on their NES which was not working.  Me being the retro NES nerd I am, grabbed a screw driver, some Windex, a few toothpicks, and a few cotton swabs and had it up and running under an hour (that includes eating dinner!).  The NES holds the games tighter, has a better connection, and works almost instantly.  I should do THAT for a living!

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  • Correct Display configuration. Errors while trying to arrange displays

    - by David Russell Parrish Bojrquez
    I am trying to set up my tv with my laptop trough a VGA cable. The display application in Ubuntu throws a lot of errors to me and I have given up in trying to do it myself. I try to apply the 1920 1080 display. The selected configuration for displays could not be applied Requested size (3200, 1080) exceeds 3D hardware limit (2048, 2048). You must either rearrange the displays so that they fit within a (2048, 2048) square or select the Ubuntu 2D session at login. And Also this: Failed to apply configuration: %s GDBus.Error:org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._gnome_2drr_2derror_2dquark.Code3: Requested size (3200, 1080) exceeds 3D hardware limit (2048, 2048). You must either rearrange the displays so that they fit within a (2048, 2048) square or select the Ubuntu 2D session at login. Please Help. @Leozitop No I don't see anything when connected to 1920 1080 because the setup fails before actually applying. Yes there are other resolutions which do work. I believe the problem has something to do with the rotation it is set up. My Ubuntu Display application has only clockwise and counterclockwise options for the TV display. I really don't know why this is happening. Basic procedure: Plug in cable, did not get the resolution I wanted. Changed settings, applied them. Re-peat until desired display is shown. I'm not a computer illiterate, really it baffles me that this is happening. Output of xrandr: david@LapUbuntu:~$ xrandr Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1880 x 800, maximum 4096 x 4096 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 331mm x 207mm 1280x800 60.0*+ 1024x768 60.0 800x600 60.3 56.2 640x480 59.9 VGA1 connected 600x800+1280+0 left (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 1600mm x 900mm 1920x1080 60.0 + 1280x1024 60.0 1360x768 60.0 1280x720 60.0 1024x768 60.0 800x600 60.3* 640x480 60.0 TV1 unknown connection (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 848x480 59.9 + 640x480 59.9 + 1024x768 59.9 800x600 59.9 Note that VGA says left and indeed it is, but no other option was available in the display. Also, note the TV1 unknown connection which I have no idea what it is. Note, also, that this has nothing to do with the display since W7 on the computer works fine and since while boot up, and also, before starting session in ubuntu the rotation is normal. I'll also mention that I HAVE re-installed Ubuntu since I had posted this question from a Live CD of 12.04 LTS. And that before the posting of the question also using 12.04 before another backup that I had to do, the VGA setup was fine without any problems.

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  • Sign of a Good Game

    - by Matt Christian
    (Warning: This post contains spoilers about SILENT HILL 2.  If you haven't played this game, you are dumb) What is one sign of a great game? One of the signs I realized recently is when a game continues to stun and surprise you years and years after you've played and beaten it.  As a major Silent Hill fan, I recently was reminded of Silent Hill 2 and even though see it as one of my favorite Silent Hill games, there are still things I'm learning about it that are neat little additions that add to the atmosphere (atmosphere also makes a great game!). For instance, when you start the game you are given a letter by your wife who has been deceased for years and years.  You are directed to Silent Hill and start treking through hell all by your lonesome (with the exception of a few psychos).  As you continue through the game, pieces of the letter begin to fade and disappear until eventually it is completely non-existent, thus implying the letter was never real and the letter was a delusion you created. Another example is the game's use of imagery the player knows about but might not notice at first.  For me, the most apparent of these was the dress you find near the start when you find the flashlight, which is the same dress you see Mary (your wife) wearing in the flashback sequences.  However, one thing I didn't know was that several deceased bodies you encounter laying around Silent Hill are actually the body of the main character (James) which invokes an idea you've seen that body before but can't pinpoint where... It's amazing to see a game go to such unique lengths to provide a psychological horror game.  Sure, all the dead bodies could be randomly modelled and the dress could be any ol' dress, but just the idea of your brain knowing something deep down but you can't pinpoint it is a really unique idea.  In my opinion, it ties less into subconscious and more into natural tendencies, it taps into the fear hidden inside us all.

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  • P90X or How I Stopped Worrying and Love Exercise

    - by Matt Christian
    Last Wednesday, after many UPS delivery failures, I received P90X in the mail.  P90X is a series of DVD's and a nutrition guide you use to shed pounds and gain muscle.  Odds are you've seen the infomercial on TV at some point if you watch a little tube now and again.  I started last Thursday and am still standing to tell this tale. At it's core, P90X is a 12 DVD set of exercise videos.  Each video is comprised of a different workout routine that typically last around an hour (some up to 1 1/2 hours).  Every day you are supposed to do one of the workouts which are different every day (sometimes you may repeat a shorter 6 min workout dedicated to abs twice a week).  There are different 'programs' focused on different areas, for weight loss you do the Lean Program, standard weight loss and muscle gain do the Regular Program, and for those hardcore health-nuts, the Insane Program (which consists of 2 - 1 hour long exercises per day).  Each Program has a different set of workouts per week which you repeat for 3 weeks, followed by a 'Relaxation Week' which is essentially a slightly different order.  After the month of workouts is over, you've finished 1 phase out of 3.  P90X takes 90 days, split into 3 Phases (1 phase per month).  Every phase has a different workout order which is also focused on different areas (Weight Loss, Muscle Gain, etc...)  With the DVD's you also get a small glossy book of about 100 pages detailing the different workouts and the different programs as well as a sample workout to see if you're even ready to start P90X. The second part of P90X, which can also be considered the 'core' (actually the other half of the core) is the nutrition guide that is included.  The Nutrition Guide is a book similar to the one that defines the exercises (about 100 glossy pages) though it details foods you should eat, the amounts, and a number of healthy (and tasty!) recipes.  The guide is split up into 3 phases as well, promoting high protein and low carb/dairy at during Phase 1, and levelling off through to Phase 3 where you have a relatively balanced amount of every food group. So after 1 week where am I?  I've stuck quite close to the nutrition guide (there isn't 'diet food' in here people, it's ACTUALLY food) and done my exercise every day.  I think a lot of the first week is getting into the whole idea and learning the moves performed on the DVD.  Have I lost weight?  No.  Do I feel some definition already starting to poke out?  Absolutely (no pun intended). Tony Horton (the 51-year old hulk that runs the whole thing) is very fun to listen and work along with and the 'diet' really isn't too hard to follow unless all you eat is carbs.  I've tried the gym thing and could not get motivated enough to continue going.  P90X is the first time I've ached from a workout, BEFORE starting my next workout.  For anyone interested, Google 'P90X' or 'BeachBody' to find out more information about this awesome program!

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